Iran, Vietnam Eyes $2b Trade Milestone

TEHRAN – Pointing to the goal of bringing Iran-Vietnam trade relations to $2 billion, Iran’s 1st VP said that one of the main prerequisites for the goal is the expansion of banking cooperation.

First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, during a meeting with Vietnamese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Novin Son Kong on Saturday, said that fortunately, the political cooperation of Tehran and Hanoi has been growing in the last four decades and Iran has no limitation for development of ties with Vietnam.

He expressed pleasure with holding joint commission meeting in Tehran in the upcoming days and said unfortunately holding the meeting was stopped for several years and expressed hope that it could be held regularly.

Noting that political ties between Iran and Vietnam are positive and satisfactory, Jahangiri said Vietnam has special position in Iran’s foreign policy, adding that the two countries hold constructive cooperation in international circles.

Jahangiri announced Iran’s readiness to meet Vietnam’s needs in the field of oil, gas, engineering and technical services and polymer materials and said in upcoming commission meeting the two countries could reach good agreements in order to promote economic relations.

Novin Son Kong, for his part, described political relations between the two countries desirable and said the two countries should try to increase their economic and trade relations as well.

Pointing to 4 decades of political and diplomatic ties between the two countries, Vietnamese official expressed his country’s interest in maintaining access to the Central Asian markets through Iran.

He stressed that Iran has high capacities in economic and trade domains such as oil, gas, petrochemicals, minerals and agricultural products and Vietnam is interested to supply its needs from the market.